Scorsese’s ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ got us thinking: who did people turn to for this type of entertainment before the invention of the cinema? There is no debauchery art topic on Sartle, so instead, we searched ‘Drunks, Stoners’, ‘Soft Porn’, ‘Perverts’, and ‘Birthday Suits’. It turns out, there were lots of people people turned to, but to keep things simple, we picked a favorite artist and artwork from each of the last five centuries. Here then are our five favorite artworks that channel the stockbrokers behaving badly vibe of the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’:
- 1500’s - Hieronymus Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights. The best debauchery of the five. You simply can’t beat floral sodomy.
- 1600’s - Jan Steen, Drunken Couple. Not epic, but reminds us of DiCaprio and Hill towards the end of the quaalude scene.
- 1700’s – Francois Boucher, Jupiter in the Guise of Diana and the Nymph Callisto. Again, a bit more on the intimate side, but girl on girl, with one girl about to transform into a boy, and the first girl about to get pregnant, it all sounds very kinky and still low brow enough for Long Island.
- 1800’s - Lovis Corinth, The Temptation of Saint Anthony. This one channels a Stratton Oakmont office party. Admittedly, in Scorsese’s world, St Anthony would be forty years younger, would go by ‘Tony’, and would be a much more enthusiastic participant in this scene.
- 1900’s - Max Beckmann, The Temptation of Saint Anthony. Another great Stratton Oakmont office party. Boobs galore, animals, bondage outfits, live music, a butler/bellboy, and something that could easily be a suitcase full of cash.
Francisco Serrador
Contributor